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By Craig Harper
For the Courier
LAKEWOOD — After years with Lexie Malazdrewicz as the indisputable poster child for Evergreen girls swimming, the door is wide open for a successor. Though a team picture might be a more proper replacement, Bailey Smith would be a leading early season candidate.

Evergreen freshman wrestler Thomas Nations is also part of the school’s jazz band. So for some wrestling practices, he’s only there for half the time. Two other days a week, he’s there for the duration. But what he has learned with those limited reps is paying off.

Not too many teams are going to come back after spotting the opposition the first 13 points and 20 of the game’s first 21.
That’s especially true when you’re playing a caliber team such as Valor Christian, the state’s No. 1 team in Class 4A. Evergreen found out the hard way.
The host Cougars in their home opener trailed 13-0 not even 3 minutes into the game, and they didn’t hit their first basket until Valor Christian was ahead 20-1 en route to a 72-38 thrashing Dec. 7 at Evergreen High School.

Evergreen girls basketball coach Amy Bahl is competitive by nature. In her second year at the helm of the Lady Cougars, she’s trying to instill that same mentality in her team. That includes results like the team’s 53-48 home defeat to Sand Creek on Dec. 7.
“I always tell our team that I don’t want to lose off uncontested layups. I want to lose off contested jump shots,” Bahl said. “If that team was going to beat us by a lot tonight, it was going to be from the 3-point line.”

Monique O’Neill served as an assistant for four years under legendary Evergreen poms coach Debbie Cooper.
So when Cooper unexpectedly moved out of state this year, O’Neill, as she put it, “tried to do everything that she taught me to” to keep the Lady Cougars on track.
“Initially, (the girls) were kind of scared, worried about what was going to happen,” O’Neill said. “I told them that I would step up to take it, and that if they had faith in themselves and faith in me that we’d have a successful year.”

November brought us some variable weather. Not unexpectedly, we received our first measurable snow and a few brief snow squalls. November also brought us some fine spring-like days with temperatures in the foothills in the high 60s and Denver even reached 71 one day.

EVERGREEN COUGARS
Head coach: Scott Haebe
Assistant coaches: Jordan Diegman, Tom Warren, Adam Dodge
Conference: 4A Jeffco
2012-13 record: 17-8
2012-13 recap: Evergreen went 11-3 to finish in second place in the 4A Jeffco League behind D’Evelyn. “Last year, I thought, was a really good season. Unfortunately, we ran into Lewis-Palmer in the Round of 16,” Haebe said. The Cougars reached the third round of the 4A state tournament before losing to the eventual state champions.

If Jack Curtis were to describe himself as a basketball player, he would say that he’s hard working, he does anything that he can for his team, and he will do what it takes to win, within reason, of course. That’s pretty much how others describe him as well.